AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

There are only 2 months left for The Painting Studio class but now I am seriously debating on not attending any more.

Part of the course outline stated: "One-on-one coaching and group interaction will assist students in resolving problems and finding the confidence to generate their own aesthetic voice.". That sounds good but I am finding this is not the case. The past few weeks in art class I have been struggling with a particular piece. I wanted to create (for myself) a tribute and personal inspirational piece of Beatrice Wood utilizing her amazing black and white pics from her book "Playing Chess With Heart: Beatrice Wood at 100". Initially I could easily envision the abstract background but as I continued to paint things went awry. Okay that's fine, this happens. So I painted 3 different abstracts but still I couldn't get the piece to work. Somewhere along the line I had lost my initial vision. I decided to paint the whole canvas (4' x 5') black and start over. As I was painting the canvas black my instructor came over to check out the situation. He knew from the start what my original intention of the piece was and he told me, "It's too literal. You could easily do an abstract and say it's a tribute to Beatrice, you don't have to put her pictures on the canvas. If you want to use her pics why don't you make a collage instead.". I didn't say a word but of course various thoughts ran through my head, mainly, "I thought you're here to be supportive and help a student when needed, not tell them their piece is stupid and they shouldn't be doing it. And if I wanted to make a collage I would have done that in the first place! UGH!! ". He didn't literally say my piece is stupid but I sure felt that way. I had ZERO support for what I wanted to create. He's an abstract painter as well but different from me but that doesn't mean that what I want to create isn't of value, it's valuable to ME and that's what matters.

I love to work on large canvases and my art instructor keeps telling me, "Keep working it. Get your money out of it.". I'm not concerned about the cost of the canvas. And if I want to zip through a canvas then I am allowed to because I bought the canvas and I paid for art class, it's my thing, not his.

Also, my instructor told me to get smaller canvases to work on. HUH? If I wanted to work on small canvases than I would have small canvases but I don't. Why push me in a direction I don't want to do?

My instructor has told other instructors that he is taking me under his wing. At first I was tickled pick but now I feel he is not supportive and somewhat controlling.

I decided to try this class only because it's suppose to be an open studio time with help if/when needed. But it's not working out the way I had hoped. Life is like that sometimes.

If I'm not in a supportive art class environment what's the sense? Heck, I rather work that night instead ... for that matter it use to be a work night but I decided to take an art class instead. And I sure could use the $$ because I am gearing up to buy a townhouse.

This week I will not go to class and I will work instead. After this I'll see how I feel.

I brought one of my canvases home to work on so at least I'll have something to paint. So far I'm much happier painting at home ... that says a lot!